ArticleJournal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association2025
How Sustainable Are Hospital Menus in the United Kingdom? Identifying Untapped Potential Based on a Novel Scoring System for Plant-Based Provisions.
Article in Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Analysis of the Provision of Plant-Based, Vegetarian and Omnivorous Meals in UK Care Homes for Older People.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2026Article
- Estimating facility-level greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. hospitals with machine learning imputation of incomplete self-reported data.Cleaner environmental systems · 2026Article
- Environmental Performance Indicators Used in Healthcare Foodservices: A Scoping Review.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2026Article
- Development of a blueprint for plant-derived hospital meals: a multidisciplinary co-creative study.European journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- Article
- One Health Approaches to Ethical, Secure, and Sustainable Food Systems and Ecosystems: Plant-Based Diets and Livestock in the African Context.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Strategic menu optimization could reduce carbon emissions and saturated fat consumption: a simulation modelling study of UK hospital inpatient meals.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Why is the medical profession reluctant to talk about diet change?Future healthcare journal · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAdopting plant-forward diets is essential for achieving climate targets. As the second-largest provider of public sector meals in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) can significantly reduce its environmental impact by transitioning to plant-forward menus, contributing to its goal of being a net-zero healthcare service by 2045. This study evaluates the extent to which NHS hospitals currently align with sustainable practices by assessing the plant-forward nature of in-patient menus.
methodsGreen Plans from 40 hospital trusts were analysed to assess commitment to plant-forward, lower-emission menus. Freedom of Information requests were sent to 50 NHS trusts, and 36 menus from the spring/summer season of 2024 were analysed. A novel scoring system was developed to assess the hospital menus, with subscores reflecting the availability of plant-based meals, ruminant-meat meals, and menu strategies to encourage plant-forward choices.
resultsGreen Plans showed limited commitment to increasing plant-based food options. Hospital menus scored poorly overall (average score of 20/100, range: 9-38). The lowest subscores were observed in the provision of fully plant-based meals and nudging techniques. The provision of ruminant meat varied (subscore range: 0-100) and all hospitals included processed meat on their menu. Hospitals with outsourced catering scored higher than those with in-house catering.
conclusionDespite national recommendations to shift towards plant-forward diets, NHS hospitals currently show little commitment and provide limited offerings in this regard. The novel scoring system offers a practical framework for monitoring progress and guiding hospitals towards environmentally sustainable, plant-forward menus.
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